President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Vice President and Prime Minister, Colleagues,
I wish you welcome to the Kremlin, and I am pleased to have this chance to meet today. I am pleased to have this opportunity not only because of the important event beginning in London in just a few days to address the financial crisis that has us all under immense pressure. Our economies also depend of course on how this situation develops. But I think that we also need to outline the future directions for building up our relations, taking into account the dynamic they have developed over these last years.
That probably sums up today’s agenda. I know that you will hold talks with our country’s Prime Minister tomorrow. Once again, I wish you welcome.
Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (translated from Russian): Thank you very much for your kind words, Your Excellency.
We are pleased to be visiting the Russian Federation, a country that is our friend. To be frank, this visit is primarily devoted to our bilateral relations’ economic agenda, but I want to say from the outset that we view it in a strategic light. We want to thank Russia for its unfailing support of the Arab countries’ positions on various international and regional issues. I also want to reiterate our support for Russia’s position on the international stage.
It is my personal hope that our talks today and my talks tomorrow [with Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin] will lead to new projects in a wide range of areas.